Strippers Are Now Accepting Venmo Tips As Strip Clubs Go Virtual During Pandemic

As strip clubs across the U.S. are faced with closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, some dancers are looking for alternative ways to get back in business despite social distancing requirements.

A group of strippers at Los Angeles’ Jumbo’s Clown Room have evolved by taking their performances virtual, allowing participants to watch online for a fee of up to $20 a show, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. To get paid, the women are taking tips via Venmo or Cash App, allowing them to continue working even as the pandemic takes its toll on traditional strip clubs.

One stripper from Jumbo’s Clown Room, which closed in March, Reagan (real name Megan Rippey), said the reinvention of their shows was all their own doing. She told the Times that the women were waiting “for someone to swoop in and take the reins and tell us what to do. Then we realized that we were those people.”

The virtual show, “Cyber Clown Girls,” runs twice a week for three-hours on Zoom, featuring current dancers from Jumbo’s as well as alumni dancer and other performers from the industry. Tickets are sold on another web-based platform, Eventbrite.

The show was co-founded in May by Gabrielle, Reagan, Coco One (real name Kayla Tange), and Kitty, the Stripperina (real name Kelly Vittetow), who take turns hosting the event, which also has a theme each night from “Star Wars” to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Each dancer performs two short dances in their homes, using anything from portable poles to windowsills as a makeshift set.

About 100 guests show up for each show, tipping the dancers, who pool the money and split it evenly among the night’s performers. But the dancers are not just pocketing the money for themselves. A significant portion of the profits is donated to various causes. To date, the dancers have donated $12,000 to organizations that include Planned Parenthood and the Marsha P. Johnson Institute – a nonprofit that protects Black transgender people.

“When we performed live, we didn’t have hosts to really explain some of the dancers’ backgrounds and things that we were fighting for,” Coco Ono told the news outlet. “We were just bodies.”

The “Cyber Clown Girls” are just one example of how adult entertainment businesses have shifted focus amid the pandemic. In July, Vivid Gentleman's Club in Houston became the first drive-thru strip club in the state.